Is the .JOBS Domain the Future of Job Search?

On Tuesday Nov. 6, the DirectEmployers Association partnered with TalentCircles, a leading candidate engagement and management platform. Through this platform, members of the Association can now create a branded talent network while also providing “an enhanced candidate experience.”

The new technology partnership enables DirectEmployers members to add a private talent network to their new or existing .JOBS Microsites. Using this platform allows recruiters to manage both active and passive candidates, as they wish, and also allows interaction with candidates through voice, video, webinars, chat, email and announcements tools. Those members who choose to use the talent network will also have access to analytics and customer reporting features.

Bill Warren is the executive director at DirectEmployers Association. In a recent interview with Recruiter.com, he said that The TalentCircles partnership allows the Association to create talent networks and communities for their members, something the company was unable to do in the past.

“Our member companies have embraced the partnership which adds a new dimension to the Jobs Universe with great enthusiasm, he said.

The emergence of the .JOBS domain caused a stir of debate in the HR world last year. The .JOBS sites are targeted job sites ending in the .JOBS extension. The websites are specific to geographic location, for example, Houston.jobs and/or Atlanta.jobs. There are currently .JOBS sites for all 50 U.S. states including the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

“The “.Jobs Universe”, a build-out of the international .Jobs Top-Level Domain (TLD), includes over 40,000 geographical, occupational, and country-name domains ending in the intuitive .Jobs suffix to create an environment of seamlessly integrated employment domains, and is revolutionary for both the recruitment industry and the Internet,” said Warren. “The Jobs Universe offers distinct advantages for both employers and job seekers. It is the only search engine on the internet where job seekers can search all jobs across employer career sites with results that are guaranteed to be real jobs from real employers free of scams, duplicate job listings, and old or expired jobs.”

In May 2011, Employ Media defended the new .JOBS domains after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) issued a “Breach of Registry Agreement” to the company. Employ Media filed a Request for Arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, France. Many people in HR, recruiters and job board operators, including CollegeRecruiter.com and SalesGravy.com, were in opposition of Employ Media’s desires to amend its registry contract. The amendment would remove a restriction limiting .jobs registrations to the corporate name of employers, which was an important part of its original commitments.

Warren said that “opposition to the Jobs TLD seems to have subsided in recent months.” Many viewed the .JOBS domain additions as competition that would clog search engines (as more job sites are added) ultimately making it more difficult for job seekers to actually find jobs. They’ve also said that the sites “undermine the investment employers have made in their corporate career sites.”

“My personal goal since I entered the online world has been to provide employers with an online employment system that is cost-effective, improves labor market efficiency and reaches an ethnically diverse national and international workforce,” said Warren when asked whether or not he believed the partnership and private talent network addition posed further competition. “Ultimately the marketplace will tell me if I have accomplished this goal or not.”

Recruiter.com would like its readers to weigh in on the topic. What have been the experiences of those who have used the .JOBS sites?

Marks’ stories have also been published in a variety of newspaper, magazine and online formats including The Arizona Republic, The Daily Herald, Arizona Foothills Magazine and various classroom magazines of Scholastic Inc. Service is her passion, writing is her platform and uplifting and inspiring the community is her purpose. Marks received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication from Arizona State University. Google+ Profile